Hydatid disease of the liver in children: evaluation of surgical treatment.

The medical records of 55 paediatric patients with hepatic hydatidosis, who were treated between 1990 and 2001 at Atatürk University, Turkey, were reviewed retrospectively. The most common symptoms at presentation were abdominal mass (32.7% of cases) and pain (81.8% of cases) in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen. Cysts were found in the right lobe in 41 patients, in the left lobe in four patients and in both lobes in 10 patients. Multiple hepatic cysts were present in 12 cases and eight patients also had cysts in other organs. Surgical procedures were evacuation of the cyst and management of the cavity with tube drainage, capitonnage, omentoplasty, cystectomy or segmentectomy. Long-lasting biliary fistula (two patients) and cholangitis (two patients) developed following evacuation and tube drainage, and one patient developed cholangitis after capitonnage. This review suggests that omentoplasty and capitonnage are more effective than tube drainage in the management of the cyst cavity.